Antagonist A.D. Honour Arkangel With ‘From Heaven We Fall’ Cover

Antagonist A.D tackle an Arkangel favourite.

In 2018, Antagonist A.D. had a great year. For one, they stormed right back into the local scene after some time away, dropping two hot new tracks, ‘No Justice‘ and ‘A.P.M.D.‘. They also dusted off their gear and racked up some more tour milage too, and 2019 is bound to see more kick-ass happenings from the Antagonist A.D. camp. To celebrate capping out a good year, the much-loved Australian/New Zealand hardcore act put out a surprise release a few weeks back: a cover of Arkangel’s religious and apocalyptic-themed cut, ‘From Heaven We Fall‘.

The opening song off of Arkangel’s 1999 debut album, ‘Dead Man Walking‘, this recent cover is all kinds of wicked; giving a great track a new lick of paint. If that band is a little before your time, however, just know that Arkangel are a Belgium metalcore/thrash-crossover band, originally forming back in 1997, and who are still active today. Faithfully re-creating the original section for section and riff for riff, this new take actually cuts down the building, feedback wails of the intro in order to get to the action quicker, yet it carries just as much tonal venom and vocal rage as before. Antagonist A.D.’s new version also includes the original’s Biblical sample from 1995’s Prophecy for that rather ominous outro too. (God, remember when every second metalcore band used movie samples in their songs? KYS remembers.)

Like most people, I’m a sucker for a good cover song, and this modern take of an Arkangel banger is solid; musically burning with the flames of hell and late 90’s metalcore alike. In fact, when you compare both tracks side by side, you realize just how big of an influence that band was for Antag’s music; from the raw sound, vehement vocals, chugging riffs, to the sense of aggression and misanthropic lyrical content. It’s all right there.

While on some level, this release does just sound like moreAntag, I sure ain’t complaining! (Hopefully we’ll see a new full-length record drop in 2019). All up, the band have honoured Arkangel proudly here. So go check out this dark, throttling and fitting rendition of ‘From Heaven We Fall‘ below. Two killer bands, one great song.